Kate Sheppard

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Oh this glass sculpture of Kate Sheppard at the NZ National Library is sumptuous. The green, the light, the different angles, and everything about it makes my insides smile. 
GIF of Kate Shepphard's glass sculpture at the New Zealand National Library statue

Her sculpture currently stands on Te Ahumairangi, the ground floor of the Library's Molesworth St building. The result of a petition to Parliament on behalf of the Women's Refuge, commissioned by Saatchi and realised by Propellor Studios.

Making Kate
There aren't many photos of Kate available, so creating her form in 3D took some extrapolation and imagination. Sketched up by Hamish Fraser in Zbrush, the model was then sliced into hundreds of layers.

351 flat shapes were then cut out of the country's entire available stock of glass-edge acrylic, a material lighter than regular plate glass and the source of the statue's wonderful sea-green colour.

Each sheet was etched with the 2,616 names and messages of the petition's signatories, and stacked on a stainless steel 'spine'. A base of jarra and iron-bark wood, and 1000 LEDs, supports Kate and gives her a glorious glow.

Kate is 2.112 metres tall, and took a grand total of 376 solid hours to create.

70 Molesworth Street, Thorndon, Wellington 6011, New Zealand

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